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Dies the Fire
}} Introduction Dies the Fire (2004) is an alternate history, post-apocalyptic novel by S. M. Stirling and the first installment of the Emberverse series. The series is a spin-off from Stirling's Nantucket series. The first novel chronicles the struggle of three major groups and a number of minor ones to survive "The Change", a sudden worldwide event that alters physical laws so that electricity, gunpowder and most other forms of high-energy-density technology no longer work. As a result, modern civilization comes crashing down. Summary Mike Havel flys the Larsson family from Boise, Idaho to their country home in Montana. While the plane is in flight over the Bitterroot Valley everyone sees a blinding flash of light and feels an intense pain and the plane's engines die. Mike manages a controlled crash of the airplane in a creek.Chapter One Juniper Mackenzie is singing for customers at the Hopping Toad Tavern in Corvallis, Oregon when the Change occurs. She and Dennis Martin, who manages the tavern, turn it into an emergency first aid station. When threatened by gang members, Juniper uses an axe handle to kill one man armed with a tire iron. Dennis swings an axe at and wounds another carrying a baseball bat. That man retreats and his smaller friend introduces himself as Eddie Liu and promises revenge. Dennis tries to fire a pistol; Juniper and her party realize that firearms no longer work.Chapter Two Ken Larsson is knocked unconscious and Mary Larsson is badly injured in the crash. Mike dives onto the wreck of the plane to recover emergency rations and his survival kit. The group gets fires started and digs in for the night. The next morning, they take stock of their situation. They find that everything electrical has failed and their only rifle no longer works. Mike learns that Astrid is skilled with a bow and is a fan of J. R. R. Tolkien; Mike makes her the hunter of the group.Chapter Three Juniper, Dennis and Eilir gather supplies and head to her cabin by way of Luther Finney's farm to retrieve her horses and wagon. They travel by bicycles and take medieval weapons made by John Martins. Meanwhile, Juniper's handfasted mate Rudy Stern is killed in an airplane that crashes when the Change occurs. Chuck Barstow and Andy Trethar, who see the crash, are returning to Eugene, Oregon when they realize something they need is at a nearby museum. They stop and secure two big Conestoga wagons with horses to pull them and proceed to the restaurant Andy and his wife own. It is the meeting place for the Singing Moon Coven, which includes Juniper as its high priestess. Chuck finds his wife Judy and others already there for a Wiccan rite. Some members have failed to show. They decide to go to Juniper's Cabin.Chapter Four Emiliano Gutierrez makes his way to the Portland Central Library, where he sees that the mayor and chief of police of Portland have been hanged from hooks. Entering the building, he is welcomed by Norman Arminger as "Lord Emiliano." Emiliano and other gang leaders watch Arminger kill four men in a fight using only his sword. Arminger tells the group that power will rest with those who can organize. Emiliano agrees.Interlude I Mike Havel and the Larssons make their way to a ranger cabin. Enroute, they survive by eating rabbits. Just before they arrive, Astrid luckily kills and elk. At the cabin, they find clean clothes, food, and warmth. Mike and Eric leave Ken Larsson and the Larsson women at the cabin and hike south to seek help. Enroute, they come to understand each other.Chapter Five Juniper Mackenzie, Eilir and Dennis Martin arrive at the farm owned by Luther Finney and his wife. After they and the Finneys discuss the long-term prospects of the Change, Juniper offers the couple an opportunity to accompany her party to her cabin. The Finneys decline and the trio start out for the cabin in Junipedr's wagon. On the way, refugees gang up on them for food. Eilir is forced to shoot Sally Quinn with her crossbow; the wounded woman's companions flee, but Juniper and Dennis take pity on her and her young son, allowing them to join the group.Chapter Six Mike and Eric hike out to the highway, only to discover the widespread effect of the Change. They encounter a trio of white supremacists who have enslaved a black man, Will Hutton, his wife Angelica and his daughter Luanne. Mike and Eric rescue the women, but Will heads into the forest with the supremacists in pursuit. Mike and Eric prepare to follow them.Chapter Seven Chuck Barstow and his group in the Conestogas stop at a garden supply store and buy everything they can with what Chuck knows is worthless money. As Juniper and her four companions approach the foothills of the Cascades, she explains the origin of her cabin. Sally tells Juniper that they should expect exotic animals, including tigers, to flourish in the Changed world. They come to the Fairfax farm, where the owners have died from illness and left possession of the stock and supplies to whoever finds them. Enroute to Juniper's Cabin, Chuck and his party rescue a dozen school children abandoned on a school bus. As Juniper nears her cabin, she she that Chuck and his group have arrived. After exchanging greetings and information, the combined group settles in. Juniper says, "...it's a clan we'll have to be..."Chapter Eight Mike and Eric pursue the white supremacists back to the ranger cabin. By the time they catch up, the supremacists have murdered Mary, and are attempting to rape Signe and Astrid. All three villains are killed by Mike Eric, and Astrid. Both young women are in shock; Astrid worst. The survivors head back to the highway and rejoin the female Huttons. The entire group accepts Mike as their leader and decide to head for Larsdalen, the Larsson family estate in the western Willamette Valley in Oregon.Chapter Nine Mike, the Larssons and the Huttons organize and Mike begins instruction in combat. They are interrupted when Astrid shoots a black bear with her bow, which provokes it into attacking.Chapter Ten Juniper Mackenzie's group starts to farm the land. To supplement the food reserves, Juniper and Dennis go hunting and stumble upon Sam Aylward, a former member of the elite British Special Air Service and a superb archer and bowyer as well. He had been injured after falling into a steep ravine and had become trapped. After they return to the cabin, Juniper realizes that it is time to reach out to others.Chapter Eleven The bear seriously wounds Mike before he and the others kill it. The event gives the group its name: the Bearkillers. The Bearkillers pause while Mike heals and Will Hutton begins making weapons. Mike tells Will he wants to make a stop to see if they can recruit more people because they may have to fight for what they want.Chapter Twelve The Bearkillers begin recruiting other survivors. The new people include Pamela Arnstein, a veterinarian from San Diego, California; Josh Sanders, his wife and daughter; and Bill Waters, who is a bowyer, and his wife and two children.Chapter Thirteen The Bearkillers They are 'hired' by a group near a Nez Perce reservation to investigate disappearances, and find and wipe out a nest of cannibals; in accomplishing their mission, they rescue a number of captives who later join. Mike and Signe become attracted to each other, though she keeps him at arms length, still horrified by the memory of her near-rape. Later, when the group is larger, Mike takes two companions to scout the way ahead to Larsdalen. In Portland, Mike meets Norman Arminger, leader of the Portland Protective Association. Arminger, a former professor of medieval history and member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, is reinstating feudalism, recruiting gang leaders and former SCA members and driving those he does not want or need out of the city. Arminger offers the Bearkillers positions as Protectorate nobles, but Mike asks for time, and proceeds to the Willamette Valley. Mike and his men help Juniper Mackenzie and friends from Clan Mackenzie, who are trapped by 'Eaters' whilst on their own reconnaissance mission. Mike and Juniper are attracted to each other and have sex before the two small groups go their separate ways. The encounter leaves Juniper pregnant. The Bearkillers later hire themselves out to local sheriff Robert Woburn to fight "Duke Iron Rod", who is raiding the Camas Prairie region. The Bearkillers trap and wipe out one raiding party, but while they are away, a traitor helps a second group attack the Bearkillers' camp. In the fighting, Ken Larsson loses his left hand and eye. Mike and his group gallop back to rout the attackers and capture Iron Rod for later hanging. Arriving at the Willamette, the Bearkillers ally with the Mackenzies and Oregon ranchers, in a raid on two Protectorate castles which Arminger constructed to block route I-20 from Clan Mackenzie over the Cascades to the ranchers at Bend. After the Bearkillers settle in Larsdalen, Mike and Signe become engaged. Clan Mackenzie Liu later becomes a Portland Protectorate baron. Later, Juniper takes a few companions to scout the Willamette Valley. On their way, they are ambushed by a group of cannibals, but are helped by Mike and his Bearkillers. A night or two later, she and Mike have sex, conceiving a child. The Mackenzies arrive in Corvallis, Oregon, where they discover that the faculty of Oregon State University has taken over the governing of the town. Upon returning home, Juniper finds that the nearby town of Sutterdown has been attacked by Protectorate troops. Juniper agrees to lead the Clan against the would-be occupiers and drives them away from the town. The Clan has a successful first harvest, but problems elsewhere dampen this happy occasion. Sam Aylward is sent to lead a group of Mackenzie archers, allied with Bearkillers and Bend Ranchers, against a Protectorate castle placed to block a major trade route. They are successful and manage to force the surrender of a second castle. Juniper gives birth to a son, whom she names Rudi in memory of her dead husband. During Rudi's wiccaning, Juniper is overcome by inspiration which causes her to give him the craft name of Artos and to pronounce a prophecy declaring him "the Sword of the Lady." References